As Trump ends the “War on Fossil Fuels,” we all win

For eight long years, President Obama waged a relentless war on the fossil fuels that provide us with the abundant, affordable, and efficient energy that makes modern American life possible.

One of President Trump’s greatest accomplishments has been to end that ill-advised war, and now his actions are bringing about a peace dividend that will benefit us all.

By terminating President Obama’s Climate Action Plan, Clean Power Plan, biased climate research, and other programs, as well as by withdrawing from the Paris Climate Agreement, President Trump is saving the American people billions of dollars.

Already, the fossil fuels peace dividend is creating growing employment, a resurgent economy and rising wages. America’s ingenuity and muscle are once again being unleashed, after being shackled for years by the Big Government regulators of the Obama Administration.

Moreover, we are realizing these gains without losing significant health and environmental protections. Many Obama Administration environmental regulations were based on phony or exaggerated claims that downplayed their costs and hyped their benefits….

Ask yourself: Are you angry that you monthly electricity bill is too low?

The United States as a whole uses 3.5 billion megawatt-hours of electricity annually. At 8 cents per kilowatt hour, our collective national electricity bill is $280 billion annually. At German or California business and industry rates, that electricity would cost us $630 billion a year. At German rates for families, the cost would be $1.2 trillion!

So right there, we have $350 billion to $945 billion in annual potential savings – compared to what we’d pay if the War on Fossil Fuels had continued….

Oil and natural gas leasing and production revenues plummeted during the Obama years, from $24 billion in 2008 to less than $6 billion in 2016. This was partly because the fracking revolution halved petroleum prices. But it was also because Obama Administration regulators resolutely resisted leasing and drilling.

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke is now expanding leasing, drilling, and mining. And he is reducing excessive regulatory delays and costs – without endangering the environment, health, or safety.

Congressional Budget Office estimates indicate that producing just a portion of those vital resources could generate $70 billion in state and federal revenues over a 10-year period from bonuses, rents, royalties and taxes.

Finding and producing that oil and gas would generate jobs, energy, raw materials for petrochemicals, and oil and gas for exports….

President Trump will need to conduct mop-up operations for years to come. But because of his actions, we will not be compelled to spend as many trillions of dollars building massive industrial facilities that would be needed to replace fossil fuels with pseudo-renewable, pseudo-sustainable, and pseudo-climate-friendly wind, solar, and biofuel industrial sites.

President Trump’s critics say he hasn’t accomplished much. But on the energy front – where he can act without the need for congressional action – he has accomplished an enormous amount for the American people.